This invention relates to a portable cooler apparatus, and more particularly concerns a cooler of back-pack style for storing and dispensing a number of cans of beverage.
Various thermally insulated cooler chests have earlier been disclosed for confining a number of cans of beverage in close adjacency to cooling means while additionally providing means for facile removal of said cans. For example, a cooler chest described n U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,647 to Spurrier is comprised of a box-like insulated chest having dispenser means for causing substantially automatic gravity feed of cans to an access door, said cans being cooled by "ice particles" placed in direct contact therewith. Although presumably of a portable nature, the horizontal format of the Spurrier chest and its cumbersome construction appear to preclude carrying by one person in back-pack manner. Also, the requisite ice particles are not readily available and may cause malfunction of the dispensing mechanism.
A back-pack type of thermally insulative carrier adapted for use by campers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,895 to Leslie. However said back-pack cooler makes no provision for the automatic gravity-feed dispensation of beverage cans, and is not specially interactive with any particular cooling means.
A portable cooler chest is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,336 which encloses a removable ice-confining container whose exterior shape has cavities which accommodate beverage cans for efficient cooling thereof. Although such construction eliminates leakage of coolant substance and facilitates removal of beverage cans in the direction of their center axis, the design does not permit automatic dispensation of the cans.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a cooler for storing and dispensing a number of cans of beverage.
It is another object of this invention to provide a cooler as in the foregoing object which may be carried by one person in back-pack style.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cooler of the aforesaid nature having efficient, non-leaking cooling means which interactively enhances said dispensing feature.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a cooler of the aforesaid nature of rugged and durable construction which may be economically manufactured.
These objects and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description.